As of 8 Oct, 5 million people, 14,270 villages and 1.1 million acres of crops were affected by flooding. Almost 270,000 people wee housed in 478 relief camps. More than 465,000 houses were damaged. (OCHA, 9 Oct 2012)

As of 8 Nov, parts of Balochistan and Sindh were still under water. Almost 160,000 people were housed in 117 relief camps. More than 1.3 million people needed safe drinking water, sanitation, health services, continued food and agriculture assistance. (OCHA, 8 Nov 2012)

Reports indicate that nearly all the 22,000 people who fled their villages in North Waziristan in January fearing security operations have returned home.

Health authorities have confirmed 11 new polio cases in north- western Pakistan this year. Partners are concerned that displacements from North Waziristan could result in the spread of the poliovirus to neighbouring districts.

When floods swept through Sindh Province in northern Pakistan in September 2012, Haseena, a widowed mother of four, lost her home, her livestock and her means of making an income. In all, more than US$500 worth of her property was washed away or ruined – an almost insurmountable loss for a woman trying to raise a family in Sindh.

174,162 registered families with more than 1 million individuals are currently displaced in Kyber Pakhtunkwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as a result of ongoing insecurity since 2008. The 79,839 people (13,306 families) from Tirah Valley in Kyber Agency in March/April 2013 remain largely displaced in Kurram and Kohat.

Measles continues to be a problem in Sindh due to a weak routine immunization program. Since 2010 there have been a number of outbreaks in flood affected areas. The situation worsens in winters due to overcrowding and the airborne nature of infection transmission. Displacement affects more easily children and poor nutrition leads to lowered immunity which further increases the vulnerability of children. Lack of access to life saving healthcare during emergencies further compounds the impact of the disease leading to high mortality among infected children.

• Humanitarian partners urgently need more resources to sustain assistance for more than 1 million people currently displaced in north-west Pakistan due to conflict and insecurity since 2008.

• Low measles vaccination coverage continues to threaten the lives of thousands of children in Pakistan. From January to mid-May this year, 10,875 measles cases were reported, equivalent to 73 per cent of cases reported the whole of last year.

An estimated 1.5 million people in southern Pakistan are still highly vulnerable and require humanitarian assistance as they try and recover from the impact of the 2012 monsoon floods, according to humanitarian partners. The flood-affected people need livelihoods, shelter, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene support.

Three consecutive years of flooding have only compounded the existing vulnerability of people living in hazard prone areas who are extremely poor and underdevelopment of their locations.

Government authorities and humanitarian partners in Balochistan are responding to the humanitarian needs of an estimated 30,000 people affected by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the border region of Iran and Pakistan on 16 April.

Humanitarian partners have conducted capacity-building workshops on disaster preparedness and management for over 100 government and military officials involved in emergency response in flood-prone districts.

Since mid-March 2013, almost 60,000 people have been displaced from the Maidan area in the Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), due to an escalation of hostilities between rival armed groups and the Government’s security operations against armed non-state actors. Meanwhile, a total of 173,091 registered families with an estimated 1 million individuals are currently displaced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA since 2008.

Since mid-March, about 43,000 people have been displaced from Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency, FATA, due to an escalation of hostilities between rival armed groups. Humanitarian partners are providing assistance to 163,102 registered displaced families with an estimated population of 978,000 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA due to a complex emergency that has affected the region since 2008.

• Humanitarian partners and Government authorities are providing assistance to about 43,000 people displaced from Khyber Agency in FATA since mid-March due to an escalation of hostilities between rival armed groups.

• Humanitarian partners are seeking faster approval of No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for implementation of projects in KP and FATA.

• Attacks against aid workers in Pakistan continue to threaten the provision of lifesaving assistance to vulnerable people. In January alone, 20 aid workers were attacked, of whom 12 were killed and 7 kidnapped.

• Various humanitarian needs remain unaddressed in the areas worst affected by the 2012 monsoon floods, six months after the emergency.

(Islamabad/New York, 19 November 2012): Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Catherine Bragg made her first visit to Pakistan this week to assess and draw attention to the urgent needs of communities affected by the floods in the south and displaced families in the north-west.